Hello cousins: We have our second DNA match. AND IT"S ME!!!!! This match proved a relationship that would have been questionable otherwise. Here is what we had before the DNA test. 1860 census, Wayne Co. TN James WEST 25 TN Delpha 23 TN Mary 3 TN Frances J. 1 TN I knew this James WEST was the son of William WEST and nephew of my ancestor Felix WEST. I have searched for the above family, but had found nothing after the 1860 census. My new cousin had the following on his ancestor James W. WEST. 1870 census, Hardin Co. TN (Hardin adjoins Wayne Co. TN) Mariah West 31 Frances 12 James w 6 Isaac H 2 His ancestor, James Wesley WEST, matches the child in the 1870 census. The only thing connecting the above two families is the girl Frances who is age 1 in 1860 and 12 in 1870 - too thin to build a pedigree on that alone. The discrepancy in the age of the mother in the above families, 23 in 1860 and 31 in 1870, (Mariah is age 38 in the 1880 census) is less than some variations we have all seen when researching census records. His family has an oral tradition that the father of James Wesley WEST was killed by bushwhackers shortly before the birth of his last son. This would explain why I could not find this family after the 1860 census. We now think that the wife Delpha WEST in the 1860 census, is a widow using the name MARIAH WEST in 1870 and later records. One more clue from our traditional genealogy reseach. In 1887 James Wesley WEST married Annis MADDOX. In the 1880 census for Hardin Co. TN Annie I. MADDOX is living in the household of her father Dan'L MADDOX in Hardin Co. TN. Dan'L MADDOX lives adjacent to William WEST. We are now confident that this William WEST is the grandfather of James Wesley WEST. William WEST is the brother of my ancestor Felix WEST. The DNA test confirmed beyond doubt that he and I share a common ancestor. We still have some work to do on this family, but we can now focus on a single line and collaborate on our research. This is my first male WEST cousin that I have been able to find beyond my grandfather. I am very excited, and had to share this with our extended WEST group. We had no idea that we could be related a year ago when this project was started. Check our DNA wepage at: http://web.utk.edu/~corn/westdna/ Dennis West coordinator for WEST surname DNA project